Benitago trumpeted a $325M series A raise in Nov 2021. By Nov 2023 they filed for bankruptcy. Jon Derkits - a fellow ex-Amazon alumni - published a deep dive into Benitago's bankruptcy worth reading. Two details caught our eyes from Jon's summary: 1) they had 29 legal entities; and 2) 92 people with only 12 employees and 80 contractors at the time they went bankrupt. Let's talk about these two points a bit more.
In 2021 Thrasio was valued at $10 billion. This kicked off a mad Wall Street frenzy to fund every random person who wanted to start a "me-too" Amazon aggregator regardless of talent, expertise or ability. Like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, the entire thing has come crashing back down to Earth. CB Insights provides a research deep dive into Thrasio's rise and fall. Our co-founders have deep experience participating in the evolution of this industry since 2020... having seen both the promise, challenges and flaws of the entire aggregator industry.
Modern Retail recently reported that for the remainder of 2023 brand aggregators are focused on making their businesses more efficient if they want to survive